You cannot fake charcoal. That is the whole problem with building a jerk chicken truck, and it is the reason this one has a grill hanging off the outside of it.
Jerk is a smoke method before it is a spice blend. The marinade matters, but what turns marinated chicken into jerk chicken is hours over live coals with the lid down. Put that same chicken on a flat top and you get a good piece of grilled chicken and a disappointed Jamaican customer. There is no griddle setting that produces smoke.
So when BobSled Express came to us for a Jamaican barbecue truck for Laramie, Wyoming, the first decision was not the layout or the wrap. It was where the charcoal was going to live.
Why the grill went on the outside
Putting a charcoal grill inside a food truck is possible and it is almost always a mistake.
Charcoal produces heat you cannot turn off, smoke you have to move, and ash you have to deal with. In a sixteen foot box that already contains a range, a griddle, a fryer and a steam table, a charcoal grill inside means a bigger hood, a harder fire conversation, a hotter kitchen and a cook standing in smoke for eight hours. In Wyoming in July, with the truck also running an air conditioner, the kitchen loses that fight.
Outside, the arithmetic reverses. The smoke and the heat stay outdoors where they belong. The grill gets its own exhaust fan rather than competing for the main hood. The cook works the grill from a dedicated position rather than turning around into it. And the inside of the truck stays a normal, workable commercial kitchen with an eight foot hood over a conventional cook line.
The custom part is the door. There is a screened door beside the grill, fabricated for this build, so the person working the coals is not walking around the truck and is not propping the service door open in a wind. It is a small thing that will get used four hundred times a week.
What the fire code actually says about charcoal on a truck, and what it does not
This is the part worth reading carefully if you are planning a similar build, because the honest answer is that the model codes do not squarely address it.
The fire code section written specifically for mobile food preparation vehicles is about cooking equipment that produces grease laden vapours, and it deals with hoods, automatic suppression, LP gas capacity and cooking oil storage. Read it end to end and it does not mention solid fuel, charcoal or open flame at all. The section was written on the assumption that food trucks cook with gas or electricity.
Solid fuel cooking is dealt with elsewhere in the code, in the commercial kitchen hood provisions, and that material is demanding. It contemplates noncombustible flooring extending three feet in all directions, three feet of horizontal and six feet of vertical clearance to combustibles, a fire rated room for fuel storage, a fixed water supply with a hose at the cooking location, ash removed daily and stored cooled in covered metal containers, and, importantly, an exhaust system for the solid fuel appliance that is independent of every other exhaust system on the premises.
That last requirement is the one this build already satisfies by design. The charcoal grill has its own exhaust fan and is not tied into the eight foot hood serving the range and the fryer. If you take one thing from this article into your own build, take that: never duct a charcoal grill into the same system as your gas line.
What nobody can tell you from a code book is whether an exterior mounted grill on a mobile unit is judged under the commercial kitchen hood rules or as outdoor cooking equipment reviewed case by case. We could not find a Wyoming or Laramie provision that resolves it, and the City of Laramie has adopted the International Fire Code by a most recent edition clause without amending either section. In practice that means the fire code official decides. So the real advice is procedural rather than technical: book a pre application conversation with Laramie Code Administration on 307-721-5271 and walk them through the grill, the exhaust, the clearances and your ash plan before anything is fabricated. Doing that costs an afternoon. Discovering it afterwards costs a rebuild.
The rest of the cook line
Outside the grill, this is a serious kitchen rather than a one trick truck, because a jerk menu is not only jerk.
The main line is a 48 inch range with a 36 inch griddle, two burners and an oven underneath, plus a separate stockpot stove for sauces. Jerk sauce, curry, rice and peas and oxtail all want a pot that lives on its own burner rather than fighting for space on the range. There is a 40lb LP floor fryer with a splash guard for festival food, a four pan electric steam table for holding, a reach in refrigerator and a 27 inch undercounter freezer.
The rice cooker and the microwave ship loose rather than built in. That is deliberate. Those two pieces move around as an operator learns their own service, and bolting them down on day one guarantees they are in the wrong place by month three.
Above the line is an eight foot exhaust hood with fire suppression, Class K and ABC extinguishers, and a grease catch pan on the roof fan so grease does not run down the paint. The service window is six feet with a menu display box and a shelf.
Building for 7,200 feet
Laramie sits at about 7,200 feet, which is high enough that it changes how the truck cooks.
Water boils around 199F rather than 212F, so anything simmered or braised takes materially longer. On a Jamaican menu that is most of the pot work: oxtail, curry goat, rice and peas. An operator moving up from lower altitude has to relearn their timings, and a steam table that is holding rather than finishing becomes more important, not less.
Gas appliances also behave differently at altitude. Combustion air is thinner, and manufacturers commonly specify altitude derating or different orifice sizing above a few thousand feet. That is a conversation to have with the equipment manufacturer for your specific range and fryer rather than something to assume, and it is worth having before the truck is delivered rather than during your first service.
Propane itself is not degraded by altitude. Eighty pounds is eighty pounds. What changes is how the burners use it.
Licensing a food truck in Laramie
Laramie is unusual in Wyoming, and it catches people out in a good way and a bad way at once.
The city runs its own environmental health office
Most of Wyoming licenses food establishments through the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, Consumer Health Services. Laramie has its own Environmental Health Division, on East Grand Avenue, and that is where the Food Service License comes from. The state inspector assigned to Albany County exists and is reachable, but the practical route for a truck operating in the city is the city office.
The fees match the statewide schedule: $200 for a new establishment, $100 a year to renew, and $50 for a temporary food licence, which covers 14 individual days within three consecutive months at a single location. Plan review is required before construction or remodelling under the Wyoming Food Safety Rule, and we could not find a published dollar figure for it, so ask when you submit.
On the build side, the Wyoming rule requires the waste tank to be 15 percent larger than the fresh water tank, sloped to a drain of at least an inch with a shut off valve, and a hand wash sink delivering at least 100F. It uses the term servicing area rather than commissary, defined as an operating base you return to for cleaning, waste discharge, water and stock. Hot water is a performance standard rather than a gallon figure: sufficient to meet peak demand.
There is no general business licence, but there is a mobile vending licence
Laramie does not have a general business licence at all, which surprises people. What it does have is a Mobile Vending Licence, issued by the City Manager’s Office on Ivinson Avenue under Chapter 5.82 of the municipal code. The only published figure we could find for it is $50, and that figure comes from a 2017 city bulletin, so treat it as indicative and confirm the current fee when you apply.
Parks are handled separately by Parks and Recreation. If you already hold the Mobile Vending Licence you do not need their vending licence, but you do still need a $25 vending permit for a specific date and location, and their season runs 1 May to 1 October.
Where you can and cannot set up
The rule that shapes a Laramie route is that vending is not permitted in the public right of way, with a narrow exception adjacent to park facilities. That pushes the work onto private property, events and permitted park pitches rather than street corners.
One live enforcement precedent is worth knowing. In 2023 the city revoked a mobile vending licence over greywater discharged into a storm drain, using its hazardous materials and oil release ordinance, with penalties of up to $750 a day for operating while suspended. Nobody plans to dump greywater in a storm drain, but people do get casual at the end of a long day at a busy pitch. Do not.
City staff have also discussed writing new food truck regulations, so if you are reading this some time after publication, check the current chapter rather than trusting any summary, including this one.
Fire
Wyoming adopted the 2024 International Fire Code, effective 28 June 2024, and Laramie adopts the most recent edition by reference, so the 2024 code applies in the city without local amendment to either the mobile food vehicle section or the solid fuel provisions. We could not find a published Laramie fee for a mobile food vehicle fire inspection, so budget for it as an unknown and call Code Administration.
Where a Jamaican truck earns in Laramie
Laramie has about 32,300 people and the University of Wyoming has about 10,800 students. That student number is the one to build a week around. It is a third of the town, it turns over every autumn, and it is a demographic that has usually never had proper jerk chicken and will tell its friends when it does.
Food trucks work the Tailgate Park by the Indoor Practice Facility at Cowboys home games, which is the single biggest concentrated opportunity in the calendar. Most of the other tailgate lots are bring your own, so that park is where the trade is.
Laramie Jubilee Days runs 4 to 12 July in 2026, nine days over the Independence Day week, and it is the town’s biggest event. The Laramie Farmers Market runs Friday afternoons from late June to late September in the lot north of Depot Park, skipping the Jubilee Days weekend, and it has a prepared food category. Neither publishes a vendor fee, so both are phone calls.
The competitive picture is the interesting part. We could not find a single Jamaican or Caribbean restaurant or truck operating in Laramie or Albany County. The nearest we found is in Cheyenne, which is fifty miles east and, despite the name, in a different county. For a concept that depends on being the only one doing it properly, that is close to an open field.
Walkthrough video
What a build like this costs
Custom food trucks start at $55,000 and custom food trailers start at $40,000. A typical 16ft truck comes in around $72,000 and a 22ft around $110,000. A truck with this much cooking on it, a full hood and suppression, an outdoor grill with its own exhaust and a fabricated door sits above a plain 16ft build, because every one of those is fabrication rather than a catalogue part.
Build time is about six weeks from order. On this one the long pole was not equipment, it was agreeing the grill and the door, which is exactly the sort of thing worth spending an extra week on at the drawing stage.
Frequently asked questions
Can you put a charcoal grill on a food truck?
Yes, and it is usually better mounted outside than inside. Outside keeps the heat, the smoke and the ash out of the kitchen and lets the grill have its own exhaust. The fire code requires a solid fuel appliance to exhaust through a system independent of any other exhaust, so it should never share ducting with your gas hood. Whether your fire authority reviews it under the commercial kitchen hood rules or as outdoor cooking equipment is a local determination, so get it agreed before fabrication.
Does the fire code cover charcoal on a mobile food unit?
Not directly. The section written for mobile food preparation vehicles addresses grease laden vapours, hoods, suppression, LP gas and cooking oil, and does not mention solid fuel at all. Solid fuel is dealt with in the commercial kitchen hood provisions, which were written for buildings. That gap is why the fire code official’s judgement decides the outcome on a truck.
Who licenses a food truck in Laramie, Wyoming?
The City of Laramie Environmental Health Division issues the Food Service License, at $200 for a new establishment and $100 a year to renew, with a $50 temporary licence available. Separately the City Manager’s Office issues a Mobile Vending Licence under municipal code chapter 5.82. Note that Laramie has no general business licence.
Can I park a food truck on the street in Laramie?
Generally no. Vending is not permitted in the public right of way, with a narrow exception for areas adjacent to park facilities. Private property, permitted park pitches and events are the workable options, and a park pitch needs a $25 vending permit for the specific date and location.
Does altitude change how a food truck cooks?
At Laramie’s 7,200 feet, yes. Water boils around 199F instead of 212F, so simmered and braised dishes take longer, which matters on a menu built around oxtail, curry and rice and peas. Gas appliances may also need altitude derating or different orifice sizing, so check the manufacturer’s specification for your range and fryer rather than assuming.
How long does a build like this take?
About six weeks from order. Custom fabrication such as an exterior grill enclosure and a bespoke screened door is agreed at the drawing stage, and that conversation is worth taking time over because it is the part that cannot be changed later.
More reading
- Food truck permits in Wyoming
- Custom food trucks in Laramie, Wyoming
- Running a food truck at high altitude
- Custom food trucks in Cheyenne, Wyoming
If you are working out whether your concept needs live fire and where to put it, call or text and we will go through the grill, the exhaust and the fire conversation before anything gets drawn. We have built around 500 food trucks, trailers, bus conversions and van conversions, and we deliver across Wyoming and Colorado.
Jacob Varghese
Mile High Foodtrucks
720-209-2653
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